BAYLOR UNIVERSITY. /' ^;__^7 ^^^ 



ADDRESS 



BY 



J. B. BAYLOR, C. E., B. S., LL. D, 

Newmarket Plantation^ Caroline County, Va. 



DELIVERED AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY, 
WACO, TEXAS, April 20, 1903. 



EDUCATION OF THE MASSES IN ITS RE- 
LATION TO PRODUCTION. 



RICHMOND, VA. : 
Whittet & Shepperbon, Publishers and Printers. 



BAYLOR UNIVERSITY. 



ADDRESS 



BY 



J. B. BAYLOR, C. E., B. S., LL. D, 

Newmarket Plantation, Caroline County, Va. 



DELIVERED AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY, 
WACO, TEXAS, April 20, 1903. 



EDUCATION OF THE MASSES IN ITS RE- 
LATION TO PRODUCTION. 



RICHMOND, VA. : 
Whittkt & SHEPPER80N, Publishers and Printers. 



kl 



Gift 
Author 
(Person) 

9 Ap'06 



.7 



YLOR UNIVERSITY. 



ADDRESS BY J. B. BAYLOR 



isident. Ladies and Gentlemen: 

ive traveled several thousaiKl miles from a distant city 
ir, as far as I can do so by my presence, the generous 
blic-spirited gentlemen who have made possible these 
and handsome additions to the buildings of Baylor 
ity. 

ill I think of what this University has done and is doing 
State of Texas, when I think of its relationship to the 
Japtist Church of America, of its honored Board of 
s, President, and faculty, its fine body of alumni and 
s of students, I feel that I should indeed be ungrateful 
e not proud of the fact that such a University bears my 
Qame. 

he outset of my address I wish to call your attention to 
king fact that many of our American universities and 
bear the names of individuals who gave a comparatively 
sum to found these institutions, and that this has not 
id public-spirited citizens from giving millions to these 
ties and colleges named after individuals long since 
iway. The oldest of American universities, which has 
est number of students, with the exception of Columbia 
ity and the University of Chicago, and the largest total 
income of any American university, bears the name of 
arvard, and j-et public-spirited citizens, not only in 
igland, but from all parts of the world have showered 
3n it. Amongst its benefactors are emperors and kings, 
idest names of New England, of the East, and of the 



[ 4 ] 

West. Yale, named ini honor of Eliliu Yale, has also received 
millions in benefactioms, and counts aniongst its largesit bene- 
factors the Vanderbilt family. Brown^ the Baptist university 
of Kew England, has received magnificent endowments from 
many private individuals. Others may follow the noble ex- 
ample of the Carrolls, and do for the great university of the 
Southwest, Baylor University, which bears the name of a pri- 
vate citizen, what has been done for Harvard, Yale, Brown, 
Dartmouth, Ciornell, John Hopkins, and other colleges and uni- 
versities named for individuals. 

Another striking fact is that many of our American uni- 
versities which have done the greatest work and have been most 
influential educationally have been under denominational con- 
trol. To strengthen my position I need only mention Harvard, 
Yale, Brown, Princeton, and the University of Chicago. 

Though I cannot claim the honor of being a Baptist, I am 
glad that Baylor University is under the control of a denom- 
ination which has over four million five hundred thousand com- 
municants in the United States alone, and over nine million in 
English-speaking communities. The man for whom this Uni- 
versity was named, although by family tradition an Episcopalian, 
firmly believed that in no part of our population was the spirit 
of republican institutions so firmly planted as in the Baptist 
population of America. In their church government they have 
exemplified the loftiest Christian spirit and the highest ex- 
amples of republican government. In consequence of the large 
numbers of Baptists in America, this University will always 
command the loyal support 'of a people devoted to their church 
and its institutions and influential in the communities in which 
they live. 

Some may object to denominational colleges; but where 
can the control of the university be more safely placed than in 
the hands of the clergy and laity of a great religious body? 
Abuse of power over the minds of the young, through the agen- 
cies of denominational universities and colleges, is impossible 
in such a country as ours, where so many different denomina- 
tional colleges compete one against the other. 

ISTo great institution can be built up unless a well-estab- 
lished policy in regard to control and management is not only 



[ 5 ] 

adopted but maintained, and such stability in this country is 
almost impossible except through the agency of some religious 
body of devoted loyal workers. Stability in our State univer- 
sities is very difficult to obtain on account of our ever-changing 
political parties. The uncertainty as to control and as to the 
amount of annual State appropriations has had an unwholesome 
influence upon m,any State universities. It has prevented bene- 
factions from public-spirited men, because these universities 
are supposed to be supported adequately by the different States. 

It seems to me that the duty of the State is to educate the 
child when it is too young to educate itself by its own efforts. 
You do not then destroy that self-reliance which is so essential 
to success. The State should endeavor to elevate the mind, the 
heart, and the character of the child, and it should also train 
the band, the eye, and the body when in their formative period. 
To the university should be left the education of those who 
have proved themselves at school worthy of a university edu- 
cation, and those who are willing and able to pay for it, either 
in money or in work. 

If you will bear with me, I hope to be able to prove, by an 
array of carefully collected statistics, which cannot be brushed 
aside, that no investment has ever yielded such rich returns, 
and that, too, in every civilized State and country in the world, 
as money spent in primary and industrial education for the 
masses. These facts and figures are ,so striking, Mr. President, 
that it :s but just that I should say something in advance as 
to their credibility. 

No more careful, conscientious statistician, so acknowledged 
by political friend and foe alike, has ever graced the halls of 
our Congress than the late William L. Wilson, a devoted Baptist 
and a kinsman of Judge Baylor's. Mr. Wilson told me that for 
accuracy of statement the English statistician, Michael G. Mul- 
hall, was the most trustworthy of all writers, and to Mr. Mulhall 
I give full credit for the facts I wish to bring before you to-day. 
Mr. Mulhall, by a laborious and exliaustive system of computa- 
tions, has compiled the average yearly earnings per inhabitant 
in dollars and cents for every civilized country in the world, 
and also for the different sections of these United States. 

You may tell me that countries differ so largely in density of 



[ 6 ] 

population, in age, in opportunity, in fertility of natural re- 
sources, and in race that it is not fair to so compare people, but 
it is a striking fact that density of population and fertility ot 
natural resources have no necessary effect on the prosperity of 
a country, or even on the rate of wages. Scotland and Ireland 
are almost equal in number of inhabitants per square mile, and 
yet the wealth of the former country exceeds that of the latter 
60 per cent. England has three times as dense a population as 
Prance, and wages are nevertheless nearly equal in the two 
countries. Spain is thinly and Italy thickly populated, and both 
countries are desperately poor, while Belgium has the maximum 
and Sweden the minimum population per square mile, and both 
are remarkably prosperous. New England has no rich ore or 
coal beds, it does not raise a pound of cotton, it is poor in 
natural resources, and the average yearly earnings per inhabi- 
tant is $349, while our dear Southland is rich beyond the 
dreams of avarice in coal, in iron, in petroleum, in cotton, and 
in other natural resources, yet the average inhabitant only earns 
$110 per year. 

Mr. President, from Mr. Mulhall I have collected in a table 
the average yearly earnings per inhabitant for almost every 
civilized country in the world, and even a casual student will 
find in this list the most striking differences in the earning 
capacity of the various nations. Density of population, age, race, 
fertility of natural resource, cannot' explain these remarkable 
differences. To what, then, can they be due? Portunately Mr. 
Mulhall has solved this question by collecting for us also the 
percentage of adults in every civilized country who are so ignor- 
ant that they cannot even write their names, and the amount 
of money spent per inhabitant in every civilized country in edu- 
cating the masses. 



[ 7 ] 



We find : 



Countries. 


Money per in- 
habitant spent 
in schools. 


Percentage of 
adults who 
can write. 


Average yearly 
earnfngs per 
inhabitant. 


England 


$1 64 

2 68 

1 40 

1 72 

1 00 

1 08 

22 

34 

72 

32 

10 

1 60 
84 
84 

2 40 
1 00 

1 00 
68 
44 

2 60 
2 64 


96 
97 
85 
94 
95 
99 
22 
69 
56 
42 
30 
90 
99 
83 
99 
98 
98 
24 
30 
83 
90 


$190 00 


Scotland 


225 00 


Ireland 


100 00 




180 00 


France 


156 00 


Germany 


123 50 


Russfa 


47 50 


Austria-Hungary 


83 50 


Italy » 


70 00 


Spain 


77 50 


Portugal 


68 00 


Holland 


129 00 


Scandanavia 


120 00 


Belgium 


141 50 


Switzerland 


116 50 


Norway and Sweden 


103 00 


Denmark 


136 50 


Danublan States 


64 50 


Greece 


62 50 


United States 


220 00 


Australia 


256 00 







Different sections of the United States. 




New England States 

Middle States 

Western States .... 
Southern States . . . 



$349 00 
311 50 
230 00 
110 00 



Bear with me while we examine this table. Portugal and 
Greece are two of the poorest countries in all Europe. We find 
that Portugal only spends 10 cents and Greece 44 cents per 



[ 8 ] 

inhabitant in educating their people. Only 30 per cent, of the 
people of either Portugal or Greece can write their names. Is 
it surprising that the average earnings per inhabitant is only 
$68 and $62.50 a year in Portugal and Greece? 

The Eussian Empire is marvelously rich in natural re- 
sources and in fertility of soil; it has vast stores of petroleum 
and coal, and every known mineral in its Ural Mountains; yet 
it is emphatically a poor country, with $305 per inhabitant, 
against $780 in Germany and $1,360 in France. The average 
earnings of the people of Russia are only $47.50 per inhabitant 
annually, against $220 in the United States. The waste of labor 
in Russia is prodigious; men and women toil out their lives for 
a minimum wage, and their existence in such drudgery increases 
the sullen discontent of the pQople. No man but a Russian 
could live on such fare as a Russian farmer has. It consists of 
rye bread and mushroom soup, worth 4 cents a day. He lives 
in a hut 5 feet square, and his wife helps him at the plow. Five 
per cent, of the wives of Russia die in child-birth— double the 
average of the rest of Europe. Note in connection with these 
significant facts that only 22 per cent, of Russian adults can 
write their names, and that Russia spends 22 cents annually per 
inhabitant on her schools. 

In Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Spain only 69, 56, and 42 
per cent, of the adults can write their names. These countries 
spend 34 cents, 72 cents, and 32 cents per inhabitant on their 
schools, and the average earnings of their people are $83.50, 
$70, and $77.50 per year. 

Scotland, on the other hand, spends $2.68 per inhabitant 
on her schools, and 97 per cent, of her inhabitants can write. 
Is it surprising that the average earnings of her people are 
yearly $225 per inhabitant, making her one of the most pro- 
ductive countries in the whole world? 

Ireland spends $1.40 per inhabitant on her schools, and only 
85 per cent, of her adult inhabitants can write their names. The 
average yearly earnings per inhabitant are $100, against $225 
for Scotland. 

In the face of such facts it is impossible to avoid the con- 
clusion that the earnings of a people are directly proportional 
to the educational advantages. 



[ 9 ] 

The effect of liberal expenditures for public education is 
strikingly exemplified in England, Australia, France, Germany.. 
Norway and Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, and Switzer- 
land. The people of Australia earn annually per inhabitant 
more than any other people in the world — $256 against $320 
in the United States — and there is no country more liberal in 
educating her people than is Australia — not even the United 
States. 

Never in the history of the world has the fact that knowl- 
edge is power been more preeminently true than it is to-day. 
Labor-saving machines, requiring a trained mind, hand, and 
e3^e, are used in every department of human endeavor, and 
doom the ignorant man to hopeless poverty. One laborer in thv? 
agricultural field in .America produces as much as four do in 
Europe, and he does not toil his life blood away as does the 
peasant of Russia, because education enables the American 
farmer to use labor-saving appliances. 

With the aid of steam, one man can do as much as a hun- 
dred and twenty could do in the last century. Steam makes 
for five dollars an article that would cost eight hundred dollars 
if made by hand. 

Tliie ignorant man cannot utilize these great labor-saving 
agencies, and consequently the ignorant man is a poor producer. 

Many of the states of Central and South America and India 
are desperately poor compared with the Qnited States, Canada, 
and many of the countries of Europe, and in all of the states 
where this is true we find that the people of these countries are 
kept in ignorance, and that education for the masses is at a 
discount. 

The most prosperous countries in South America are Argen- 
tina and Chili. This can be easily explained when we find that 
Argentina and Chili spend annually on their schools 84 cents 
and 80 cents per inhabitant where Brazil spends 4 cents. 

It would be very interesting, did time permit, for us to 
trace out, through Mr. Mulhall, the effect of the education of 
the masses upon the transportation, post-office, telegraph, and 
telephone facilities of a people; upon the circulation of news- 
papers, books, and periodicals, and last, but not least, upon the 



[ 10 ] 

criminal docket of a nation. The facts in this connection are 
as significant as anything I have presented to yon to-day. 

It is a well-recognized fact amongst all political economists 
that the social, moral, economic condition of a people is largely- 
determined by the yearly earnings per inhabitant, and this we 
have seen depends directly upon the education of the masses. 

Let us examine the effects of education upon different sec- 
tions of our own dear country, and I am done. 

The president of the University of Tennessee tells us that 
the average annual productive capacity per inhabitant in 1899 
was $360 in Massachusetts against $116 in Tennessee. Massa- 
chusetts spent $12,261,525 more upon her public schools in 
1898-'99 than did Tennessee. The people of Massachusetts 
earned in 1899 $403,869,824 more than the same number of 
people did in Tennessee. We may reasonably conclude, there- 
fore, that twelve millions invested in superior education yields 
$400,000,000 a year. 

As I have already shown, the average yearly earnings per 
inhabitant in N'ew England is $349, against $110 in the 
Southern States. This means that if the average yearly earn- 
ings per inhabitant was the same in the South as in New 
Engiland, the annual income of the Southern people would be 
increased several thousands of millions of dollars' — a sum very 
many times in excess of the annual value of our cotton crop. 

It is but right that I should call your attention to the fact 
that one-third of the population of the South consists of illit- 
erate negroes. This fact also has a marked effect upon the 
average yearly earnings per inhabitant in South Africa, which 
is only fifty-five dollars. There 55 per cent, of the population 
consists of illiterate negroes. 

Mr. President, the hope of the whole South centers in this 
State of Texas. Only New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois, 
and Ohio surpass it to-day in population. It is merely a ques- 
tion of time when your State will no longer stand even as 
low as fifth in the family of States. How about education in 
this States of Texas? 

It is a very gratifying fact to me to find that in Texas 
amongst the native-born whites of native parents in the total 
number of males of voting age, numbering 458,863, only 5.3 



[ 11 ] 

per cent, are illiterate, while amongst the foreign-born male 
whites of voting age, numbering 85,773, 25.4 per cent, are 
illiterate. In the whole United States amongst the native- 
born male whites of native parents and of voting age 5.8 per 
cent, are still illiterate. 

So in Texas we find that the native-born white of native 
parents is alread}^ above the average for the whole United 
States in education. This, of itself, clearly proves that the 
State of Texas is fully alive to the necessity of superior edu- 
cational advantages. The effect of education upon the people 
is shown in your annual production of cotton — far greater than 
any other state in the world. It is shown in your wheat crop, 
in your vast herds of live stock, in your output of lumber and 
oiJ, and in the enormous increase in manufactories of latt 
years. It is shown in your transportation fa(nlities, with 9,886 
miles of railwa}' — greater than those of any other State, save 
only Illinois and Pennsylvania. It is shown in the prosperity 
and happiness of your people. 

One of the most artistic, beautiful, and costly memorials 
ever erected by the hand of man, the Taj Mahal, stands at 
Agra, in northwestern India, a marvel of Indian architecture. 
Twenty thousand men were engaged for twenty years in erect- 
ing it, and it is so beautiful that Lord Eoberts has said that 
it was worth a trip to India to see it alone. 

Mr. President, if Shah Jahan had devoted the vast sums 
of money which he expended in erecting this mausoleum and 
other monuments in India to the education of the people, India 
would not to-day be a country of wretched poverty, with starv- 
ing, plague-stricken inhabitants. So in thinking of all that 
education means to a people we say from our hearts all 
honor to the Carrolls for their generous benefactions to Baylor 
University. 

I thank vou for vour kind attention. 



-'R S W6 



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a 029 921 189 7 



